To become a Radiologist Assistant, do i need to go to college for Radiography?

Question

Okay, i have looked online at a lot of websites and cannot seem to find my answer. I know what they do, and i know how much they mad...but i would like to know what schooling i need. I have read a few different answers and they are all contradictory.

Do i need to go to college for Radiography first and then take another two-year program...or something else?

THANKS!

Answer 1

The best place to get your answer is to visit the American Society of Radiologic Technologist website.    Radiologist Assistant is relatively new, and I have not worked with any as of yet.  But the ASRT has a whole section on RAs, including a list of accredited educational programs.

https://www.asrt.org/Content/Radiologist...

I am seeing that the first two program's websites said that you must be an ARRT registered radiologic technologist before being considered for the RA program.

Best wishes!

Answer 2

You are lucky I found your question just by chance. So you better give my the best answer rating...Okay!

This is a pretty new field, that not many know about....So people usally give wrong answers, or just know nothing about it. In fact there are currently only 6 or 10 programs that exist to be a radilogic assistant.

The radiologist assistant is is to the field of radiography, as the physican assistant is to the doctor....the radilogist assistant is the guy right under the radiologist and the physician assiastant is right under the doctor......So basicly they created these field to hand over the responsiblilties of doctors to the assistants.....but pay them a lot less.....LOL.

You need at least a Bachelors degree, but most radioligist assistant programs are for a masters degree.

Also every program requires you to first be arrt certified as a radiographer tech and have 3 years experience. so yes,  first you need to graduate from either a 2 or 4 year radiography program, and have 2-3 years experience in the field. You need to read the addmissions requirements for each schools program, they vary a lot. Here is a link for the current programs in this field

https://www.asrt.org/content/RTs/Special...

https://www.asrt.org/Content/Radiologist...

https://www.asrt.org/media/pdf/rt/ED_RAE...